Gerst v. Oak Cliff Savings and Loan Association

432 S.W.2d 702, 11 Tex. Sup. Ct. J. 490, 1968 Tex. LEXIS 310
CourtTexas Supreme Court
DecidedJune 26, 1968
DocketB-636
StatusPublished
Cited by184 cases

This text of 432 S.W.2d 702 (Gerst v. Oak Cliff Savings and Loan Association) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Texas Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Gerst v. Oak Cliff Savings and Loan Association, 432 S.W.2d 702, 11 Tex. Sup. Ct. J. 490, 1968 Tex. LEXIS 310 (Tex. 1968).

Opinion

SMITH, Justice.

Oak Cliff Savings and Loan Association of Dallas County, with its principal office in the City of Dallas, applied to- the Savings and Loan Commissioner of the State cf Texas for authority to establish a branch office at 3526 Bluebonnet Circle in the southwest quadrant of the City of Fort Worth, Tarrant County, Texas. Six savings and loan associations with their home offices in Tarrant County were granted leave to intervene in opposition to the Oak Cliff application. After notice and hearing, the Commissioner, on January 21, 1966, denied the application. The findings of the Commissioner pertinent to the denial of authority to establish the branch office may be summarized as follows:

“[T]he Commissioner finds that there is no public need for the proposed branch office; the volume of business in the community in which the proposed branch office would conduct its business is not such as to indicate a profitable operation; the establishment of the proposed branch office would result in undue harm to existing associations; and the proposed location of the additional office is not within the same county as the principal or home office of the applicant association, and the community in which such additional office is to be located is being adequately served by savings and loan office facilities.”

More specifically, the order of the Commissioner denying the application contains the finding:

“From the testimony adduced at the hearing, the Commissioner finds that the Southwest Quadrant of the City of Fort Worth (including the two mile radius centered on 3526 Bluebonnet Circle) and the City of Fort Worth, are, at present, being adequately served by existing savings and loan associations.”

On February 25, 1966, Oak Cliff filed this suit for judicial review of the Commissioner’s order under the provisions of Article 852a, Section 11.12, Vernon’s Annotated Civil Statutes. 1 The six intervening associations, with their principal office in Fort Worth, Texas, appeared in this suit, and aligned themselves with the Commissioner in support of his order denying the application.

Oak Cliff alleged that each of the above findings of the Commissioner was not supported by, nor based upon substantial evidence and, therefore, the order was arbitrary and capricious and as such was invalid and of no legal force and effect. Oak Cliff further alleged that on November 15, *704 1963, pursuant to Article 342-114, 2 as supplemented by the applicable provisions of Article 852a, 3 the members of the Building and Loan Section of the Texas Finance Commission and the then qualified and acting Savings and Loan Commissioner, promulgated certain rules and regulations for savings and loan associations, including Subsection (f) of Section 2.4, Chapter 2. Oak Cliff alleged that the Commissioner based his decision in whole or in part upon this particular Subsection. Section 2.4 reads:

“The Commissioner shall approve an application for a branch office if he shall have affirmatively found from the data furnished with the application, the evidence adduced at the hearing and his official records that:
(f) the proposed location of the additional office is within the same county as the principal or home office of the applying association except in cases where it appears that the proposed additional office is to be in a different county from that in which the principal or home office of the applying association is located and there is no other association, either State or Federal, adequately serving the community in which such additional office is to be located.” (Emphasis added.)

Oak Cliff alleged that the order of January 21, 1966, refusing the application, was void insofar as it is based upon Section 2.4(f) for the reason that the Building and Loan Section of the Finance Commission unlawfully exceeded its authority by and through the promulgation of such rule and regulation. Oak Cliff alleged that the Commissioner erred in basing his decision, in whole, or in part, upon said Section for the further reason

“that said regulation is arbitrary and discriminatory against savings and loan associations whose home offices happen to be outside of the county of the proposed branch and that such discrimination is in violation of the ‘equal rights’ provision of Article I, Section 3 of the Texas Constitution and in violation of the ‘equal protection of the laws’ provisions of the 14th Amendment to the United States Constitution.”

All matters of fact as well as of law were submitted to the Court. The Court found “that the order entered by the Defendant Savings and Loan Commissioner on January 21, 1966, refusing the application of Oak Cliff Savings & Loan Association for a branch office to be located at 3526 Bluebonnet Circle, Fort Worth, Tarrant County, Texas, should be set aside.” The trial court entered its judgment that the order of the Commissioner refusing the application was null and void and ordered that the matter be remanded to the Savings and Loan Commissioner of Texas for such further proceedings as may be necessary, not inconsistent with the Court’s judgment. The court of civil appeals has affirmed, 421 S.W.2d 449, holding that Section 2.4(f) was invalid, and that the other findings upon which the Commissioner’s denial was based were without support in substantial evidence. The Court of Civil Appeals has held that the Commissioner’s consideration of the requirement of Section 2.4(f), commonly referred to as the “County Line Rule,” increased the burden of Oak Cliff by *705 injecting irrelevant factors contained in a rule which runs counter to the statutory requirements contained in Section 2.08 4 of Article 852a. The intermediate court reasoned that since the rule was void, the question of whether or not the Commissioner’s order was reasonably supported by substantial evidence must be determined without regard to the findings relative to Section 2.4 (f). This holding led to the ultimate conclusion that there was “no substantial evidence that the proposed operation will not be profitable or that the volume of business in the community is not such as to indicate success of the proposed” branch office.

The Commissioner and the intervenors, in their application for writ of error, challenge the holdings of the courts below with points, (1) that Section 2.4(f) is a valid and subsisting rule adopted by the Building and Loan Section of the Finance Commission under authority of Article 342-114; and, (2) the order of the Commissioner is supported by substantial evidence regardless of whether or not consideration is given to Section 2.4(f) of the Rules and Regulations for savings and loan associations. We have concluded to reverse the judgments of the courts below and render judgment that Oak Cliff take nothing by its suit.

We shall first dispose of the question of the validity of Section 2.4(f).

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Bluebook (online)
432 S.W.2d 702, 11 Tex. Sup. Ct. J. 490, 1968 Tex. LEXIS 310, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/gerst-v-oak-cliff-savings-and-loan-association-tex-1968.